Paris 2024 Olympics basketball: Boomers’ qualification hopes dangling by a thread after 77-71 loss to Greece
The Australian men’s basketball team is in a difficult spot following a loss to Greece in its final Group A match at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Needing a win to book their place in the quarter-finals, the Tokyo 2020 bronze medallists suffered a 77-71 loss to world No. 14 Greece. It was the Boomers’ second defeat at Paris 2024 after going down to Canada 93-83 in the last match.
Australia, fifth in the basketball rankings, are currently third in Group A with four points after being overtaken by Greece in the points table. Their quarter-finals qualification hopes rest on the result of the match between Canada and Spain to be played in a couple of hours.
The Boomers can qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics basketball quarter-finals only if group leaders Canada beat Spain.
The top two teams in the group directly qualify for the last eight while the two best third-placed teams also join in the quarters.
Despite staging a remarkable comeback in the last two quarters, Australia suffered greatly before half-time. Jock Landale scored 17 points for the Boomers while Greece, who didn’t qualify for the previous three editions of the Olympics, were led by Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 20 points.
Antetokounmpo opened the scoring in this match following an assist from Kostas Papanikolaou while Landale got on the scoresheet first for the Boomers to make it 2-2 in the early exchanges.
Nick Calathes of the opposition grabbed the first three-pointer and Greece led 15-9 at the halfway point of the first quarter. Greece soon extended their lead to 21-14 but the Boomers closed the gap down to 23-21 before finishing the first quarter trailing Greece 25-24.
The Greece basketball team started the second quarter on a positive note and made it 39-24. They were all over Australia who looked out of sorts during this phase of the match.
Antetokounmpo continued to lead the charge for his side and made it 50-33 as the Boomers went into the half-time break trailing the opposition 53-36.
The Australian basketball team started to claw its way back into the game in the second half of the third quarter. They grabbed six consecutive points to close the gap down to 59-46 and were 12 points down at 62-50 heading into the final quarter.
The Boomers went on the charge early in the final quarter and Dyson Daniels and Landale soon made it 62-55. Nick Kay scored two points to reduce the gap to just 10 points while Daniels made it 67-60.
Captain Patty Mills grabbed a three-pointer but with Greece leading by just four points, Calathes made a two-pointer assisted by Antetokounmpo to provide his side with momentary respite. However, the lead didn’t last long as Landale and Mills grabbed two-pointers each to make it 69-71 to provide for a nervy finish.
In the tense last couple of minutes of the match, Vasilis Toliopoulos made a crucial three-pointer for Greece to stretch the lead to five points. Thomas Walkup also scored a three-pointer to secure a 77-71 victory for Greece in their final group-stage match and overtake Australia on the points table.